Barq’s Diet Root Beer

i know, i know, another soda i should have reviewed years and years ago. but see, i don’t like regular Barq’s so the expectations for a diet version are quite low, thus i put it off a lot. i am rather surprised that this does not have caffeine like the full sugar version has. weird, but to each their own. plus a lot of people have written to tell me that the regular Barq’s they buy does NOT have caffeine. i personally have never seen that though so perhaps it is a regional thing? or based on the actual bottler of the syrup? i don’t know. whatever, this is about the diet version, i am off track.
the problem here is the usual diet soda problem, i take a sip, it actually tastes pretty good, i think “hhhhmm, how about THEM apples?! it is decent!” but then the aftertaste happens and i feel a little sick and i think “oh yeah, it is diet afterall, oh well.” but for that first 2 seconds it is tasty. the flavor is that of regular Barq’s, kind of herby, kind of sharp, not awesome, but not bad. a little different than other hugely distributed root beers which is a bonus. but in the end, i still feel a little sick and i don’t want to drink more of it.